A bereaved father blogging for catharsis... and for distraction. Accordingly, you'll see a diverse set of topics and posts here, from the affecting to the analytical to the absurd. Something for everyone, but all, at the core, meeting a personal need.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Musical Monday #110

Welcome to the 110th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

It's a somewhat super-sized edition this week, one of those themes that grew in the researching. Thought there is a single theme, the breaks between groups of songs will become clear once it is ID'ed. A couple of additional guidelines: In every case, I'm looking for one particular version of the song, usually but not necessarily the most well-known. Also, you may ignore the definite article in all cases.

1) "Then she did a dip, almost broke my hip"2) "The boy whose name is Nicorino"

3) "Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife"4) "And not some puppet on a string"5) "Thunder is your night light, magic is your dream"6) "You say you're love is bona fide"7) "Until happiness is just an illusion"8) "That don't matter, he said, 'cause it's all the same"9) "These four walls are closing in, think of the fix you put me in"10) "And I always carry a purse"11) "Well I'll be damned, here comes your ghost again"12) "I can see a new horizon underneath the blazing sky"13) "Over silbury hill, through the solar field"14) "Take my tears and that's not nearly all"15) "It was the same old song, with a melancholy sound"

16) "In a world of persecution, that is burning in its greed"17) "To see the total eclipse of the sun"18) "You are the reason I've been waiting so long"19) "We were young and wild and free"20) "And I should've been gone, after all your words of steel"21) "He misses a step and cuts his hand"22) "Mommy served in the WACS in the Philippines"23) "It's an enemy to all mankind"24) "Love is a banquet on which we feed"25) "You don't know what you been a-missin'"26) "A Cadillac a-rollin' on an open road"27) "Bing bang, I saw the whole gang"28) "Why can't he see, how blind can he be?"29) "Like sugar and spice, so nice, so nice"30) "You'll never be mine, I'm wasting my time"31) "Forget about the past and all your sorrows"32) "It controls me, makes me do all the things I do for you"33) "It suits me fine that you treat me like a child"34) "In the shape of an 'L' on her forehead"35) "She said I was the tiger she wanted to tame"36) "There's no way they could have made two"37) "We've known each other since we're nine or ten"38) "...can do the boogaloo like I do"39) "Steam in the subway, earth is afire"40) "I see us on the shore beneath the bright sunshine"41) "Could it be finally I'm turning for home?"42) "Without you, there'd be no sun in my sky"43) "Worry, why do I let myself worry?"44) "It's a long way down, and it's a leap of faith"45) "If you want my future forget my past"46) "Remember dancing at the high school hop?"47) "You can stretch right up and touch the sky"48) "Get hung up feed the ducks with a bun"49) "I know you've been taken, afraid to hurt again"50) "You like the movies, and I like T.V."51) "You have won all my money, and my brand new Stetson hat"52) "We were cruisin' home from the Beatles concert"53) "I got no natural rhythm"54) "Is this Nutsy land so good?"55) "White sugar don't touch my lips"56) "And there I stood with a arrow in my back"

57) "Thirteen month old baby"58) "I should have changed that stupid lock"59) "You like to think that you're immune to the stuff"60) "If you're not into yoga"61) "Your mama and daddy say it's a shame, it's a downright disgrace"62) "Sitting on the doorstep of the house I can't afford"63) "Maybe I'm an open book because I know you're mine"64) "Maybe I didn't hold you all those lonely, lonely times"65) "I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay"66) "I'll love you 'till the clover has lost its perfume"67) "My one and only prayer is that someday you'll care"68) "At first she's gonna come on strong"

69) "The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear"70) "But I had to do some breakin' through"71) "She wants to return those things I bought her"72) "Walking fast, faces pass, and I'm home bound"

67 Comments:

3) Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Phil Rizzuto5) Undercover Angel - Alan O'day (wasn't he one of the Merry Men?)7) Reach out I'll be there (?) -The Four Tops (I'm embarrassed that I don't remember for sure which song it is.)9) Since you've been gone - Head East (Which I wouldn't know without my "More Cowbell" anthology.)

18. Can't find my way home--Blind Faith22. Surrender--Cheap Trick23. War--Edwin Starr, Temptations26. I found out from another MM that there is a song with a line like this that isn't Maybelline.38. It's called "Nobody"? The group is the Human Beinz, something like that?51. Stagger Lee--LLoyd Price and a host of cover versions54. Der Fuhrer's Face--Spike Jones73. Time has come today--Chambers Brothers (I think)

SJ there's an 80's song "Heaven" by a group called Warrant. Is that the singer in this case?

Wasn't Splish Splash Bobby Darin?

TRN - Tainted Love was done in the 80's by a group called Soft Cell and segued into their version of "Where did our love go?" But the original Tainted Love, I think, is also a Motown song. I forget by whom.

And 60 is Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes.

Gail - Midnight confession is by the Grass Roots(and Yitz) Nobody but me is by the Human Beanz (sp?)

31) It don't come easy - Ringo Starr61) I think If loving you is wrong (I don't want to be right) - Luther Vandross (?) Barbara Mandrell et al.66) Twelfth of Never - Johnn Mathis, Donny Osmond36) I can't figure out. I've got the tune in my head but can't get any more of the lyrics. It "sounds" like an early 70's soul song.

3.Paradise by the Dashboard Lights-Meatloaf4.I Just want to be your everything-Andy Gibb14.Tainted Love22.Surrender-Cheap Trick23.War-Bruce Springsteen25.Oh Boy-Buddy Holly58.I Will Survive-Gloria Gaynor67.It's Only Make Believe-

I'm not familiar with Rainbow's version and I don't even remember "Since you've been gone" by Head East. But if it's the same song then the 80's version is the cover version; Head East existed in the 70's.

I'll admit that the overall theme here is rather more sensitive than usual to the "precision" of the individual song IDs. So I will advise re-looking at the artists for #36 and 61. Also, spelling counts!

And in terms of songs with multiple remakes (e.g., 64), to clarify/correct my initial instructions, I am looking for a given version of each song, which could be the original and/or the most famous such. I.e., I'm looking for the version that fits the theme! :-)

Elie mentioned that spelling is important, and there is one thing that I have noticed. There are quite a few artists with double letters in their names (ie. Andy Gibb, Joan Jett, Soft Cell), some titles (Since You've Been Gone, Surrender) and a couple with both (Valotte by Julian Lennon, Stagger Lee by Lloyd Price).

There are many that don't fit that pattern as well, so I don't know if this has anything to do with the theme. But it seemed like there were too many to be a coincidence.

Though, Soccer Dad, as your original comment indicated, Phil Rizzuto is featured in the Meatloaf, er, Meat Loaf song.

But there are many songs that as they are currently identified don't fit that criteria and don't have, or seem to have, alternatives like that.

But Clayton is right, there are too many for it to be nothing.

I have a feeling that the relationship between song and artist might matter, that, say, it wasn't just that any song could be picked to represent an artist with a doubled letter, but I really have no idea.

We still don't know why the ignoring of definite articles is important.

I can't help but think that the theme might relate to Rosh Hashanah, so that the first things we might notice are only part of a much greater puzzle. Something is spelled out?

There are seven sub-groups, which could just be how many there are or could be significant in relation to the holiday. Also, the titles and artists that fit the pattern Clayton noticed don't seem to be categorized according to the sub-groups.

Perhaps there is some other kind of doubling for each sub-group, and the plentiful double-lettering throughout is just a hint.

Elie, does the order of the listing of the songs hold any significance?

Well Elie at 52 weeks a year (and maybe only 47 - 48 weeks when we actually have MM) 110 is more than two years. I think it actually started May 25, 1997. Thanks for sharing the hosting duties, as there's no way I could do this every week!

Is the idea two-word artists?So the correct artist for Splish Splash, Bobby Darin, works, but not Jerry Lee Lewis. And that is why definite articles would need to be ignored. And that is why spelling would matter.

And that would be why there aren't any Beatles songs. Are the groups without a definite article listed together: Cheap Trick, Smash Mouth, Head East, Blind Faith? We could use a round-up of the guesses so far.

I think that if you rearrange the letters in the titles of the songs in group 3-15, you get the first paragraph of the Gettysburg Address. Perahps other groups can be rearranged to get the first paragraph of other famous speeches.

The more songs there are that fit the criteria for a group, the larger that group will be?

Sounds tautological, but Elie had said the order of songs within each group wasn't significant to the theme, indicating that the order of the groups in fact was, and urged us to look at the pattern of the sizes, which consistently grew then shrunk.

So, we perhaps could have seen that the theme involved groups based on criteria that was the same throughout except for a numerical variable that was consistently increasing or decreasing, which could prompt the curve we have, rather than groups based on different types of criteria, whose sizes wouldn't reflect anything statistical like this except by random coincidence.

I think the previous Musical Monday in question paired titles and artist names that had the same number of letters, or something like that, where it too was less common to find eligible songs for the groups of very few letters or very many.

Clayton is correct on the theme, and Soccer Dad correctly identified the previous MM with a similar pattern, namely word-group sizes that grow with word sizes. Here, we saw the group sizes grow as the words got larger but then shrink again. Of course, as TRN surmises, this pattern is not part of the theme itself, I just found it interesting. There's probably some math behind this, but I'm a bit rusty on my Statistics!

Do you realize that if Donny Osmond spelled his name with an "ie" instead of a "y" there'd be 2 answers for 66?

Would 10 CC have fit or was the name 10CC?

I've been trying to think of names for the first two. Some good 3 letter words would be "New," "Old," "Red," "Bob," "Sue," and "Ann." Don't if any of those words/names are correct, but perhaps that's a starting point. One name that occurred to me was L'il Kim, though I suppose that she's too contemporary.

10cc spells their band name as all one "word" so they wouldn't qualify. Similarly I didn't use Run-D.M.C or other groups with connected single word-names (AC/DC, etc.). Given those restrictions, I was surprised how few three-letter options I was able to find.

Clues:

#1 is a 70s semi-novelty song.#2 has versions in two different languages, with the non-English version actually better known.

By the way, note from the ID of song #15, that the theme definition above can be slightly generalized.

Theme: Singers or bands with two (or more) word names, each word the same length. Sort of fit the pattern of the number "110" was my thinking.

Full set of quote IDs (spread over three comments):

1) "Then she did a dip, almost broke my hip"- "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)", Joe Tex2) "The boy whose name is Nicorino"- "Macarena", Los Del Rio

3) "Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife"- "Paradise By The Dashboard Light", Meat Loaf4) "And not some puppet on a string"- "I Just Want To Be Your Everything", Andy Gibb5) "Thunder is your night light, magic is your dream"- "Undercover Angel", Alan O'Day6) "You say you're love is bona fide"- "Cruel To be Kind", Nick Lowe7) "Until happiness is just an illusion"- "Reach Out I'll Be There", The Four Tops8) "That don't matter, he said, 'cause it's all the same"- "I Love Rock n Roll", Joan Jett9) "These four walls are closing in, think of the fix you put me in"- "Since You've Been Gone", Head East10) "And I always carry a purse"- "Draft Dodger Rag", Phil Ochs11) " Well I'll be damned, here comes your ghost again"- "Diamonds & Rust", Joan Baez12) "I can see a new horizon underneath the blazing sky"- "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)", John Parr13) "Over silbury hill, through the solar field"- "1000 Oceans", Tori Amos14) "Take my tears and that's not nearly all"- "Tainted Love", Soft Cell15) "It was the same old song, with a melancholy sound"- "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)", Greg Kihn Band

16) "In a world of persecution, that is burning in its greed"- "Question", Moody Blues17) "To see the total eclipse of the sun"- "You're So Vain", Carly Simon18) "You are the reason I've been waiting so long"- "Can't Find My Way Home", Blind Faith19) "We were young and wild and free"- "Heaven", Bryan Adams20) "And I should've been gone, after all your words of steel"- "Oh Sherrie", Steve Perry

21) "He misses a step and cuts his hand"- "Young Americans", David Bowie22) "Mommy served in the WACS in the Philippines"- Surrender", Cheap Trick23) "It's an enemy to all mankind"- "War", Edwin Starr24) "Love is a banquet on which we feed"- "Because The Night", Patti Smith25) "You don't know what you been a-missin'"- "Oh Boy", Buddy Holly26) "A Cadillac a-rollin' on an open road"- "Maybellene", Chuck Berry27) "Bing bang, I saw the whole gang"- "Splish Splash", Bobby Darin28) "Why can't he see, how blind can he be?"- "To Know Him Is To Love Him", The Teddy Bears29) "Like sugar and spice, so nice, so nice"- "I Got You (I Feel Good)", James Brown30) "You'll never be mine, I'm wasting my time"- "Midnight Confessions", The Grass Roots31) "Forget about the past and all your sorrows"- "It Don't Come Easy", Ringo Starr 32) "It controls me, makes me do all the things I do for you"- "Think I'm In Love", Eddie Money33) "It suits me fine that you treat me like a child"- "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy", Sammy Hagar34) "In the shape of an 'L' on her forehead"- "All Star", Smash Mouth35) "She said I was the tiger she wanted to tame"- "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)", Billy Ocean36) "There's no way they could have made two"- "You're the First, the Last, My Everything", Barry White37) "We've known each other since we're nine or ten"- "Seasons In The Sun", Terry Jacks38) "…can do the boogaloo like I do"- "Nobody But Me", Human Beinz39) "Steam in the subway, earth is afire"- "Hungry Like The Wolf", Duran Duran40) "I see us on the shore beneath the bright sunshine"- "I Like Dreamin'", Kenny Nolan41) "Could it be finally I'm turning for home?"- "You Light Up My Life", Debby Boone42) "Without you, there'd be no sun in my sky"- "How Do I Live", LeAnn Rimes

43) "Worry, why do I let myself worry?"- "Crazy", Patsy Cline44) "It's a long way down, and it's a leap of faith"- "Once In A Lifetime", Keith Urban45) "If you want my future forget my past"- "Wannabe", The Spice Girls46) "Remember dancing at the high school hop?"- "Beach Baby", The First Class47) "You can stretch right up and touch the sky"- "In The Summertime", Mungo Jerry48) "Get hung up feed the ducks with a bun"- "Itchycoo Park", The Small Faces49) "I know you've been taken, afraid to hurt again"- "Goodbye Girl", David Gates50) "You like the movies, and I like T.V."- "Opposites Attract", Paula Abdul51) "You have won all my money, and my brand new Stetson hat"- "Stagger Lee", Lloyd Price52) "We were cruisin' home from the Beatles concert"- "I Want My Baby Back", Jimmy Cross53) "I got no natural rhythm"- "Dancing Fool", Frank Zappa54) "Is this Nutsy land so good?"- "Der Fuehrer's Face", Spike Jones55) "White sugar don't touch my lips"- "Junk Food Junkie", Larry Groce56) "And there I stood with a arrow in my back"- "Mr. Custer", Larry Verne

57) "Thirteen month old baby"- "Superstition", Stevie Wonder58) "I should have changed that stupid lock"- "I Will Survive", Gloria Gaynor59) "You like to think that you're immune to the stuff"- "Addicted To Love", Robert Palmer60) "If you're not into yoga"- "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)", Rupert Holmes61) "Your mama and daddy say it's a shame, it's a downright disgrace"- "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", Luther Ingram62) "Sitting on the doorstep of the house I can't afford"- "Valotte", Julian Lennon63) "Maybe I'm an open book because I know you're mine"- "For Your Eyes Only", Sheena Easton64) "Maybe I didn't hold you all those lonely, lonely times"- "Always On My Mind", Willie Nelson65) "I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay"- "Ode To Billie Joe", Bobbie Gentry66) "I'll love you 'till the clover has lost its perfume"- "The Twelfth Of Never", Johnny Mathis67) "My one and only prayer is that someday you'll care"- "It's Only Make Believe", Conway Twitty68) "At first she's gonna come on strong"- "She'll Leave You With A Smile", George Strait

69) "The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear"- "Beat It", Michael Jackson70) "But I had to do some breakin' through"- " He's So Shy", The Pointer Sisters71) "She wants to return those things I bought her"- "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter", Herman's Hermits72) "Walking fast, faces pass, and I'm home bound" – "A Thousand Miles", Vanessa Carlton